The music, food, arts and crafts attracted huge crowds to the Cooper-Young Festival on Saturday.
From impromptu drum circles to apartment courtyard raves, music seemed to emanate from every quarter of the 21st annual Cooper-Young Festival Saturday, topped off by a revelatory return to form from one of the city’s most acclaimed guitar players.
Cooper-Young’s official music lineup consisted of 17 artists performing on three stages scattered over seven city blocks. Though the festival started at 9 a.m., music didn’t begin until 11:30 a.m. Organizers said they expected between 80,000 and 90,000 people to float through the festival throughout the day.
The highlight of the lineup was local guitar legend Eric Gales’ festival-closing set from the Main Stage in front of the Young Avenue Deli late Saturday afternoon. As the tendrils of Hurricane Ike clouded what had up-to-then been a lovely summer day, Gales played a long, dynamic set short on song craft and long on fret board dexterity.
Gales’ appearance marked something of a comeback for the 33-year-old Memphian. Signed to his first record deal when he was just 16, Gales has largely been out of the limelight in recent years as he struggled with a number of personal setbacks, including a 2003 home fire that destroyed thousands of dollars worth of musical equipment and the 2002 death of his brother, Manuel, better known as blues guitarist Little Jimmy King.
Playing his most high-profile local gig in some time, Gales showed that he has built solidly on the promise of his youth. Six-string theatrics are what any Gales show is all about, and he delivered impressively. A southpaw who sets up his guitar backwards in the manner of his hero, Jimi Hendrix, Gales reinforced the comparison to the late guitar god with his own renditions of “Voodoo Chile” and “Little Wing.”
But the songs were really just excuses for Gales to take off on long fanciful flights of soloing mastery. And he showed the great strides he has made as both a singer and songwriter with original compositions such “Retribution” and the humorous “I Ain’t No Shrink.”
Other highlights of the day included an energetic East Stage performance from hard rockers Tetanus. That band’s guitarist, Elliott Ives, was wrapping up a heroic 72-hour stretch which saw him perform in Austin, Texas, Thursday night with neo-soul band Free Sol and in Nashville Friday night with hip hop group Lord T & Eloise.
The Iron Mic Coalition followed them, packing the tiny stage with their seven members. Largely a street party with all ages and races waving their hands in the air to the music, IMC’s show took an unexpectedly dramatic turn when the group dedicated their song “Raindrops,” which features a sample of Isaac Hayes’ iconic cover of “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” to the recently departed soul man.
On the Congo Stage in the parking lot of First Congregational Church, diversity was at a premium, with sets from modern rock band Billie Worley & the Candy Company, acoustic singer-songwriter Grace Askew, and soul-jazz outfit the City Champs.
Back at the Main Stage, Gales’ performance was preceded by a master class on garage rock by Jack Oblivian & the Tennessee Tearjerkers and Snake Eyes, essentially the same band with different frontmen — former Oblivian Jack Yarber in the former and renowned producer-singer-songwriter Jim Dickinson in the latter. Playing mostly forgotten Memphis gems from the mid-1960s by artists like Tommy Hoehn, the ever loquacious Dickinson used his soapbox to exhort the audience that its never too late to honor Memphis’s musical legends.
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